Abd al-Rahman Ubeidallah, 13 (Pictured: left), Killed October 5, 2015, in East Jerusalem (Photo: The Institute for Middle East Understanding)

❶ . ‘YOUNG LIVES TAKEN TOO SOON’: ACTIVISTS DEDICATE MEMORIAL TO TAMIR RICE IN AIDA REFUGEE CAMP Ma’an News Agency
Dec. 3, 2016
In the span of one year, a 12- and a 13-year-old boy were shot and killed by armed authorities — one in the occupied West Bank, and one in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
___Their names were Abd al-Rahman Ubeidallah, 13, and Tamir Rice, 12, and on Friday, a memorial was unveiled in their honor in the Aida refugee camp — where Ubeidallah was born, raised, and killed — near the southern occupied West bank city of Bethlehem. __Tamir, an African-American child, was shot by local Ohio police on Nov. 22, 2014 while playing alone with his toy gun in a park in Cleveland.
[. . . .] ___Almost one year later, on Oct. 5, 2015, Abd al-Rahman was shot in the chest by Israeli forces as he walked home from school during clashes in the Aida refugee camp. ___Neither the American police officers nor the Israeli soldiers who killed Rice and Ubeidallah were indicted for killing the boys.
[. . . .] “We are dedicating this memorial in honor of two young lives which have been snuffed out unjustly,” said Reverend Graylan Hagler, who came with members of his congregation from Washington D.C. to dedicate the memorial inside the Aida playground, built by the NGO Playgrounds for Palestine. More . . .

The use of the term ‘waithood’ to describe a distinct experience of young people who are stuck in their transitions to adulthood has emerged quite recently in the international development literature. Researchers with a focus on the Middle East and Africa have noted that both the structural violence of economic exclusion and the direct violence of war make it very difficult for young people to become adults in traditional terms and they may become trapped in a prolonged or even permanent state of social, cultural and economic limbo. The terms ‘a generation in waiting’, ‘involuntary waithood’ and ‘wait adulthood’ have been coined to explain such thwarted youth transitions.
[. . . .] Alongside the focus on waithood, scholars of international relations, peace and development have also recognized children (though not youth) as a vulnerable moving (and movable) mass. Rather than being trapped in a state of youth-hood, children in conflict zones are forced to grow up too soon while circulating within and across state borders.
[. . . .] Every young Palestinian interviewed in the West Bank described their main challenge as simply ‘the Occupation’. Supporting a ‘waithood’ thesis, university students were concerned about how the political situation would affect their employment, future relationships and family. For example, a female student states that her main worry was for her transition to adulthood: Huma (aged 23): “I fear can’t have a job, can’t make my life. Everybody wants to have stability, make a family and go to their work. So if I don’t do these things I will become hopeless.” Several young people identified their own lack of mobility, on the one hand, and a loss of friends and family to emigration, on the other, as key challenges.
[. . . .] Hamdi, who is male, uses an image of ‘the Palestinian child’ to make a quite complex political point. Male children are propelled into taking a stand, taking on older youth and adult roles, by occupying space, literally, in front of a tank, to reverse the stuckness imposed by the occupation. That role in itself is a reversal of normal childhood development and another way of being stuck. While the image is one of movement through uprising, arguably Hamdi himself remains ideologically stuck in a first Intifada narrative. He admitted feelings of guilt about not doing more himself to resist the occupation, and like many of the participants believed there would be a third Intifada. Much like Alena, Hamdi is partially performing a role in reproducing the Palestinian master narrative, a pattern repeated among the Israeli interviewees where the reality of stuckness is also betrayed by the rhetoric of mobilization. [. . . .]

❷ . 2016 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE: HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM PMNH-BU
Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH)
Dec. 2, 2016
The Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University wish you a great holiday season and wishing you and yours a wonderful new year. May 2017 be a year of progress towards peace and sustainability for our planet. More . . .

❸ . JERUSALEM RESIDENT FORCED TO DEMOLISH OWN HOMEPalestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 3, 2016
A Palestinian resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was forced Saturday to demolish his own home after the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem warned him that unless he does it himself, it will demolish it and force him to pay exorbitant amount of money in costs.
___Said Abbasi, the home owner, told WAFA that he was forced to demolish the building that houses his and his brother’s homes under the pretext it was built without a license. ___He said a total of 12 members of the Abbasi family, mostly children, were displacedas a result of the demolition of the two 300-square-meter homes. More . . .

“HOW ARE YOU?” BY MOURID BARGHOUTI
Waiting for the school bus,
watching his breath turn into mist near his nose
in the icy morning,
the schoolboy’s fingers are frozen,
too stiff to make a fist.

On the pillow of regret,
the defeated soldier
lazily tries to get up,
raising his broken toothbrush
to his teeth.

Early or late,
The stranger awakens in his exile, his homeland.
Their clothes, their car number pates, their trees,
their quarrels, their love, their land, their sea
belong to them.
His memories are like rats gathering on his doormat,
new and warm
in front of his closed door.

On a lonely pillow,
the mother throws a quick glance
at the bed of her elder son,
made for the final time
and empty, forever.

A voice from the neighbouring window is heard:
“Hello, good morning, how are you?”
“Hello, good morning, we’re fine,
we’re fine!”

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GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP: A member of the Palestinian 3run Gaza team practices his parkour skills on a building in preparation for the ‘Gulf Monster’, the first Arab parkour competition in Qatar in November. (MEM file photo)

❶ 12 year old Palestinian killed in Bethlehem as violence explodes across the West Bank
❷ Clashes break out after 13-year-old’s funeral in Bethlehem, 10 injured
❸ Demolishing the houses of the Martyrs’ families…Ja’abees, Hijazi and Abu Jamal using explosives
❹ Israeli settlers attack iconic mosque in Jaffa
❺ Opinion/Analysis: ‘The problem isn’t Arab protesters, it’s the society that sees them as an enemy’
❺ Opinion/Analysis: The Basic Lies behind Zionism’s ‘Basic Truths’
❻ Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT12 YEAR OLD PALESTINIAN KILLED IN BETHLEHEM AS VIOLENCE EXPLODES ACROSS THE WEST BANK
Oct. 5, 2015
Abed al-Rahman Shadi Obeidallah, 12 was still in his school uniform when he was rushed in a civilian car to Beit Jala hospital from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem today. The boy, from from a Al Kahder village, was shot in the heart during confrontations at Aida camp as violence explodes across the West Bank prompting the Red Crescent to declare a level 3 state of emergency across the occupied Palestinian territories. Another boy was shot in leg with live ammunition during the attack.More . . . The way American media reports the murder . ..
❷ MA’AN NEWS AGENCYCLASHES BREAK OUT AFTER 13-YEAR-OLD’S FUNERAL IN BETHLEHEM, 10 INJURED
Oct. 6, 2015
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians with live rounds on Tuesday as fierce clashes broke out in Bethlehem following the funeral of a 13-year-old boy who was shot dead by Israeli forces the day before.
____Two Palestinians were shot with live bullets in their head, while another was shot in the leg, medics told Ma’an, adding that they had been rushed to operation rooms for treatments.
____Another seven Palestinians were shot and injured with rubber-coated steel bullets, medics said, and dozens suffered excessive tear gas inhalation.
____Hundreds took part in the funeral procession of Abed al-Rahman Obeidallah, 13, who was shot in his chest while returning home from school during clashes in Aida refugee camp on Monday afternoon.More . ..
❸ WADI HILWEH INFORMATION CENTER – SILWANDEMOLISHING THE HOUSES OF THE MARTYRS’ FAMILIES… JA’ABEES, HIJAZI AND ABU JAMAL USING EXPLOSIVES
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) — The occupation authorities execute an operation of demolishing using explosives and closing a room using cement to the houses of the Martyrs Mohammad Ja’abees and Ghassan Abu Jamal in the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber and Mutaz Hijazi in Silwan.
____Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC) was informed that explosives experts used explosives to demolish the houses of Mohammad Ja’abees and Ghassan Abu Jamal while the occupation authorities closed the room of Mutaz Hijazi with cement.
____During the operation, damage was caused to the neighboring houses.
____The forces raided the houses of the Martyrs Mohammad Ja’abees and Ghassan Abu Jamal in Jabal Al-Mukabber and Mutaz Hijazi in Silwan after midnight Monday.More . . .
❹ THE MIDDLE EAST MONITOR (MEM)ISRAELI SETTLERS ATTACK ICONIC MOSQUE IN JAFFA
Oct. 6, 2015
A number of extremist Israeli settlers in Jaffa attacked the Hassan Bek Mosque yesterday and attempted to burn it, eyewitnesses told Arab48.
____Mohamed Ashqar, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said: “The settlers broke into the mosque from its main gate, threw big stones inside and smashed its windows.”
____“The settlers planned to destroy and burn the mosque like what happened in the past when they burnt it, threw a pig’s head inside.”
____Meanwhile, eyewitnesses said that they saw the settlers, who wanted to damage the mosque, but they undermined the settlers’ plan as they burst into it. “Therefore, the settlers fled,” the eyewitnesses told Arab48.More . . .
❺ Opinion/Analysis+ 972 MAGAZINE‘THE PROBLEM ISN’T ARAB PROTESTERS, IT’S THE SOCIETY THAT SEES THEM AS AN ENEMY’
Noam Sheizaf
Oct. 6, 2015
Fifteen years since the events of October 2000, in which Israeli police killed 13 Arab protesters, Hassan Jabareen, head of Israel’s leading Arab civil rights organization, talks to +972 about the lessons Israel’s Palestinian population learned from the killings, the escalation of systematic discrimination since, and the vision of a democratic state of all its citizens. ‘If Arabs in Israel determined their political leanings in accordance with what Jews said, they would always be inferior.’More . . .
❺ Opinion/AnalysisPALESTINE CHRONICLETHE BASIC LIES BEHIND ZIONISM’S ‘BASIC TRUTHS’
Oct. 5 2015
Jeremy Salt
‘We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country. This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that.’ Thus spoke the ‘deputy foreign affairs minister’ for the Zionist settler state, a woman called Tzipi Hotovely. So let’s go along with her and return to the basics, especially as the killing of two settlers near Hebron and two in Jerusalem in the past week again reminds us of them.
____Since 1967 the people of Hebron have lived under the most, racist, brutal and illegal form of occupation in the world. Arguably, it is the worst place for a Palestinian living in eastern Palestine, also known as the West Bank, as opposed to the East Bank of the Jordan River.More . . .

“IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY,” BY MAHMOUD DARWISH
For centuries
I did not hate
But now
I am forced to raise my untiring spear
In the face of the dragon,
To draw a sword of fire
In the face of Baal
To become Elijah in the twentieth century.

For centuries
I did not apostate
But no
I strike at the gods in my heart
The gods that sold my people
In the twentieth century.

For centuries
I did not turn visitors
Away from my door
Than one morning I opened my eyes
To find my food stolen
My wife strangled
And my child’s back a field of wounds.
I recognized my treacherous guests.
I planted mines and daggers at my door
And I swore by the traces of the knife
That none of these guests shall enter my house
In the twentieth century.

For centuries
I was only a poet
In the bands of the Sufis
But now
I am an erupting volcano
In the twentieth century.